Sorry to leave you all in suspense! I did leave Turkey and have been back in the US since my trip over the summer :) This will be my last post about Turkey (unless the photo sizes are too large, then there may be multiple parts to this message!).
This post has nothing to do with geology, but shows that under the auspices of doing geology, one can do some awesome sight-seeing!
Our group, after field camp, informally spent a few days sight-seeing in Istanbul. What an amazing city. I definitely don't think I can do the city justice here, but hoepfully these pictures and totally incomplete descriptions will lead you all to Wikipedia some of these amazing historic sites we visited.
First off, if you haven't heard the song, "Istanbul, not Constantinople" you need to.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vankaSlfSr0 (original Four Lads version with nice pictures)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeQ-wjDH4F4 (more jazzed up version, and with accordian!!)
Pick one and watch before proceeding. Unless you live in Turkey, in which case your government has blocked YouTube. Not joking!!!
Ok, so now that you've educated yourself on the abridged history of this fascinating city (it was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul) let's look at some good examples to show these two identities still visible in this city!
Istanbul is geographically split by the Bosphorus Strait, which flows into the Sea of Marmara, which then flows into the Aegean. So on the east side of the Bosphorus, the city is considered part of Asia. The west side of the Bosphorus is European. Taking afternoon cruises up/down/across the Bosphorus is a popular tourist activity and is definitely on my list of things to do NEXT TIME! We were out of money so we opted for swimming in the Bosphorus instead :)
Here is a view of the Bosphorus from the roof of our hostel:
We spent basically all of our time on the western shore in a neighborhood called Sultanahmet, which is where the major historic sites are. The two most impressive and well-known structures are the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofya (Turkish spelling) aka the Hagia Sophia (Greek spelling). The Blue Mosque is an active mosque that tourists can walk through for free. It got its name for all the blue decor inside. It was required that visitors cover their arms, legs, and shoulders - even the men had to wear skirts provided at the door if they were wearing shorts. Surprisingly, women were not asked to cover their heads, but seeing as how I had brought my scarf that day anyway, I thought I'd take the more "modest" route. The Blue Mosque has a slightly scandalous history: it was originally designed to have 6 minarets. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but the only other mosque in the world (at that time at least) with 6 minarets was at Mecca. Religious leaders advised that completing construction with this design would effectively be giving Mecca the middle finger (not something most devout Muslims would want to do). The Sultan was a rebel though and decided to go with it anyway! It was completed in the early 1600's, making it one of the youngest historic sites in the city.
It was hard to capture the Blue Mosque in pictures, especially the inside because it's so incredibly massive, but here is my best effort (may be modified later if Andrea has any that are better):
I think one thing that really struck me about the art in religious buildings in Turkey vs. in the US is that even in the most impressive Christian churches in the US, the art is restricted to stained glass windows, some statues, and possibly some stuff up at the altar. In Turkey though, no square inch of usable wall space is spared for decoration it seems!
The Aya Sofya has a longer and more complex history. "Aya Sofya" means "divine wisdom" in Turkish which I think is an awesome title for a church! Yes, the Aya Sofya was actually built as a Christian church during the time when Istanbul was Constantinople, during the Byzantine era. Prior to going to Turkey I knew nothing about the Byzantines and sadly, I still know basically nothing! But perhaps a Christmas gift in the form of some sort of light-weight reading on the subject would help! ;) Anyway, according to Wikipedia, Byzas, a Greek king, founded the city in 667 BC. It was later sacked by the Romans and the famous emperor Constantine rebuilt the city in 330 AD, making it the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. He ordered a large church built in his new city, the Aya Sofya. The Aya Sofya was completed in the mid-300's and was the largest cathedral in the world until 1520. The building seen today is version #3 (completed in the 500's) as the first two were destroyed. After the Ottomans seized Constantinople in 1453, the Aya Sofya was converted into a mosque. 4 minarets were constructed and many mosaics and paintings were destroyed at least in part. Islamic art does not allow faces of living things to be portrayed (only God can create living things) so many of the mosaics in the Aya Sofya were damaged during that time to make them "acceptable." Additions were made to the inside of the building, including large black medallions with gold Arabic script. In the 1930's, the Turkish government took control of the building and secularized it, making it into the museum it is today, however, no restorative work has been done. Interested readers should check out this Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aya_Sofya
This building was really cool, inside, and outside. I think this picture is a good representation of the clash of Islam and Christianity. The painting on the dome is Mary holding Jesus, with two basically destroyed angels (one on each side). The black and gold medallions flanking the painting were added by the Ottomans.
Another pretty ancient place we toured was a Roman cistern. It is underground and was built as a water filtration system. It has had to undergo lots of upkeep, just in the past few decades, there have been major excavations and restoration efforts by the Istanbul Metropolitan Museum. The roof is supported by rows of columns, which, like many other buildings in Turkey, appear to have been nabbed from older buildings due to their mismatching nature. The most intriguing aspect of the columns though are the bases of two columns in the very rear of the cistern. The bases of those two columns are large carved heads of Medusa. One is upright, one is rotated sideways. The positioning of the heads has been hypothesized by some as symbolic and relating to Roman mythology in some way, while others believe it to be just more evidence of random pieces of architecture getting re-used.
This is a picture I took while walking through. The water is pumped from time to time to keep it quite low, probably only a foot deep. Before the 1990's, tourists rode through on row boats. Now there are walkways that wind through.
Something I don't have pictures of but was definitely a notable spot: the Grand Bazaar. Pretty much anything you could imagine buying can be bought here. And for very competitive prices. I got fairly good at bargaining and got some things for more than 50% off! It's the type of place though that's so crowded and sprawling and has such a sense of "you have to buy stuff here!" that I found that I had to be really focused and strategic while there because it would be very easy to spend all your money at the first group of stalls.
So that's the abridged tour of Istanbul (not Constantinople)! I would definitely recommend checking out some of these places online for better pictures and more info. They're all really really cool!
Unless I get a slew of really amazing pictures from others on the trip, this is the end of the Turkey portion of my geologic adventures, 2010.
Tesekkur ederim (thank you [for reading]).
Salaam alaikum,
Sarah
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